Electrode suspension means for electrostatic precipitator



March 1955 R. A. MARRIOTT ETAL ELECTRODE SUSPENSION MEANS FOR ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 31, 1952 9 6 @M w m 74/ V/l/l V/ll m H M/ M 7 H H I m i a 5, w l g "p k V a H w M INVENTORS RICHARD A. MARRIOTT BY ARM/1N0 L. LABBE 2% MW ATTfl/PNEY MarCh 1955 R. A. MARRIOTT ETAL 35 ELECTRODE SUSPENSION MEANS FOR ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR Filed Dec. 31. 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS RICHARD A. MARK/0T7 BY ARM/W0 L. LABBE ATTORNEY United States Patient ELECTRODE SUSPENSION MEANS FOR ELECTRO- STATIC PRECIPITATOR Richard A. Marriott and Armand L. Labbe, Salt Lake City, Utah, assignors to American Smelting and Refining Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New Jersey Application December 31, 1952, Serial No. 328,986

3 Claims. (Cl. 183-7) This invention relates to electrode mounting or support means for the electrodes for an electrostatic precipitator. More particularly, it relates to support and guiding means for plate or sheet collector electrodes in electrostatic precipitators of the wire discharge type.

Heretofore, in the construction of electrostatic precipitators it has been the practice to provide support means which, with respect to the thickness of the electrode, project beyond the surface of the electrode. When guide means were desired or required, the same type of construction also was used. In such construction, the support and guide means reduced the electrical gap between the discharge and the collector electrodes. The electrical gap, therefore, was limited by the support and guide means rather than by the space between the surfaces of the discharge and collector electrodes. Thus, the guide and support means of the prior art limited and reduced the amount of voltage that could be impressed between these electrodes.

The principal object of the invention is to overcome these difiiculties inherent in the construction of theprior art. Another object is to provide a construction which will permit the impressing of greater voltages between the discharge and collector electrodes, thereby enhancing the efiiciency of the electrostatic precipitator. A further object is to provide streamlined support and guide means which reduce the resistance to fiuid flow through the precipitator. These and other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following more detailed description of the invention.

Broadly, the invention comprehends large surface-area electrodes having support means attached to an end thereof to support the electrode in the electrostatic precipitator but in which the thickness of the support means when attached to the electrode is no greater than the eifective thickness of the electrode for that portion of the support means extending along the edge of the electrode. The invention further comprehends similar guide means attached to another end of the electrode.

The electrodes contemplated by the invention may have any desired shape. Thus, they may be tubular with a circular or polygonal cross-sectional area or they may be in the form of fiat or corrugated plates or sheets. In the preferred form, however, the novel construction is used on the collector electrodes in an electrostatic precipitator which is provided with wire discharge electrodes. In such construction, the discharge electrode is preferably a plate or sheet electrode which may be either fiat or corrugated.

For the purpose of illustrating the invention further, there is shown in the accompanying drawings forms thereof which are at present preferred, although it is to be understood that the various instrumentalities of which the invention consists can be variously arranged and organized, and that the invention is not limited to the precise arrangements and organizations of the instrumentalities as herein shown and described.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of an electrostatic precipitator employing the principle of the invention.

Fig. 2 is an end elevation of the precipitator of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a view of a portion of a corrugated sheet electrode provided with guide and support means shown in Fi 1.

ig. 4 is a view taken along the line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a view taken along the line 5--5 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 6 shows an alternative construction for the guide and/ or support means of the invention.

2,704,135 Patented Mar. 15, 1955 Fig. 7 shows an alternative construction employing the Invention.

Referring to the drawings, 10 is the precipitator shell having gas inlet and outlet 11 and 12 respectively, and provided with hopper bottom 13 for receiving collected material.

Supported from the shell by means of channels or angles 14 and rods 15, are a plurality of wire discharge electrodes 16 which may be maintained in position by spacer bars 17 which may also be suitably supported from shell 10. The wire electrodes may be held taut by the weights 18. One of the members 14 is connected to a source of high voltage (not shown) by means of lead 19. The discharge electrode system comprised of the channels or angles 14, rods 15, electrodes 16, spacer bars 17 and weights 18, may be suitably electrically insulated from the collector electrode system and may also be so insulated from the shell 10.

The discharge electrodes are suspended between adjacent corrugated sheet collector electrodes 20, with the wires of the discharge electrodes extending beyond the upper and lower extremities of the collector electrodes. A bar 21 of a length greater than the width of the electrodes 20 is attached to the top edge of each of these electrodes. The ends of the bars 21 rest upon channels or angles 22 which in turn may be suitably attached to and electrically insulated from the shell 10 so as to support the collector electrodes in the precipitator. The ends of the bars 21 may be welded to the channels 22 or they may be welded to or slidably engage the angles 23 which may be secured to channels 22. The collector electrode system may be suitably grounded by means of lead 23a attached to one of the members 22.

Guide bars 24, similar to support bars 21, may also be used at the bottom of the electrodes 20 so as to permit the corrugated sheet to expand or contract freely or to limit its motion if the sheets are vibrated to knock off precipitated material which may accumulate on these electrodes. The ends of the bars 24 may rest upon channels or angles 25 which may in turn be suitably attached to shell 10 and electrically insulated therefrom. The ends of the bars may be welded to angles 25 or they may be welded to or slidably engage the angles 26 which may be attached to channels 25.

Details of the construction of the guides and supports for the electrodes are shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 5. As will be seen, the thickness of the bars 21 and 24 is no greater than the eifective thickness A (see Fig. 5) of the corrugated sheet. Although the thickness of the guides and supports may be less than the effective thickness of the electrode, these members preferably all} have the same thick'iess since more effective streamlining is thereby obtaine The support bars 21 are provided with a plurality of downwardly depending pins 27 attached to the bottom edge of the bars. The support bars 21 are mounted on the top edge of the corrugated sheet, with the pins disposed between the corrugations, as shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 5. The pins 27 are welded or otherwise fixedly attached to the sheets.

The guide bars 24 are also provided with a plurality of pins 28 which are disposed upwardly and attached to the top of these bars. The guide bars are disposed in the precipitator with the pins 28 disposed in and slidably engaging the corrugations of the plate electrode 20, as shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 5. As shown in Fig. l, the bars 24 are fixedly attached to the angles 26, for example by means of the welding 24a. The angles 26 are, in turn, fixedly attached to channels 25, for example by the welding 25a. Alternatively, instead of slidably engaging the sheet 20, the pins 28 may be fixedly attached thereto in the same manner as described in connection with the pins 27. In such an alternative arrangement, the ends of the bars 24 may slidably engage the angles 26.

Instead of the uniform thickness of the construction illustrated in Fig. 3, the guides and supports may be constructed with thicker or thinner ends but with those portions extending along the edge of the electrode and also preferably those portions immediately beyond the edge of the electrode being no greater than the effective thickness of the electrode. Fig. 6 illustrates such a modifica- "ice tion. Thus, the bars may be constructed with the flanges 29 integrally formed therewith or welded thereto. The flanges 29 may then be welded or otherwise attached to the channels 22 and 25. Instead of being square or rectangular, the guides and supports may also be circular or oval in cross-sectional area.

Instead of a single bar or rod, the guides and supports may each be comprised of a plurality of such members, as is illustrated in Fig. 7. Thus, the thickness of the top portion 30 and the bottom portion 31 of the sheet elec trode may be less than that of the main body of the electrode 20. In the case of a corrugated electrode, the thinner portions 30 and 31 may be flat. With such an arrangement, the bars 32 and 33 may comprise the support at the top and may be fixedly attached to the electrode by means of machine bolts 34. The guide may be comprised of the bars 35 and 36 which slidably engage the portion 31 of the electrode at the bottom. For the construction of Fig. 7, the thickness of the bars 32, 33, 35 and 36 are such that their outside surfaces are flush with the main body of the electrode 20 although the thickness of these bars may also be such that their outside surfaces are disposed inwardly of the outside surface of the main body of the electrode.

Electrostatic precipitators in which the present invention is embodied are capable of having voltages impressed between the discharge and the collector electrodes which are greater by as much as 5,000 volts, or more than can be impressed in comparable precipitators of the prior art. The higher voltage results in more etficient removal of material from the treated gases, especially of solids and liquids in the smaller ranges of particle size. The increased streamlining obtained also results in the consumption of less power to move the fluids through the precipitator.

The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential attributes thereof, and it is therefore desired that the present embodiments be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, reference being had to the appended claims rather than to the foregoing description to indicate the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In an electrostatic precipitator, a vertically corrugated plate collector electrode, a support bar mounted on the upper edge of said electrode for supporting the electrode in the precipitator, said support bar having a plurality of spaced downwardly depending pins attached to its'bottom surface with the pins disposed between the corrugations of said electrode and fixedly attached thereto, a guide bar mounted in the precipitator and disposed below and contiguous to the lower edge of said electrode, said guide bar having a plurality of spaced upwardly depending pins attached to its top surface with the pins disposed between the corrugations of the electrode and slidably engaged therewith, the thickness of said support and guide bars and the pins therein being no greater than the efiective thickness of the electrode in those portions of said bars which extend along the edges of the electrode.

2. In an electrostatic precipitator, a vertically corrugated vertical plate collector electrode, a support bar mounted on the upper edge of said electrode for supporting the electrode in the precipitator, said support bar having a plurality of spaced downwardly depending pins attached to its bottom surface with the pins disposed between the corrugations of said electrode and fixedly attached thereto, the thickness of said support bar and the pins thereon being no greater than the effective thickness of the electrode in those portions of the support bar which extend along the edges of the electrode.

3. In an electrostatic precipitator having mounted therein vertical plate collector electrodes and vertical wire discharge electrodes which extend beyond the upper and lower edges of the collector electrodes electrostatically associated therewith, the improvement comprising means extending along and in supporting engagement with one of said edges of each collector electrode for mounting each collector electrode in the precipitator, and guide means extending along and slidably engaging the opposite edge of each of said collector electrodes, said guide means permitting vertical expansion and contraction of the collector electrode associated therewith and cooperating with the support means on the other end of the respective collector electrode to maintain the latter vertically aligned, the thickness of said guide and support means in operative position in said precipitator being no greater than the effective thickness of the respective collector electrode associated therewith.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,584,055 Weiskopf May 11, 1926 FOREIGN PATENTS 554,644 Germany Apr. 16, 1930 

